Secondary cable connections placed underground by utilities and other businesses have to be readily accessible to workmen for the purposes of making additional connections as well as performing maintenance and repairs. This need has previously been filled by the use of manholes or not filled at all. Many times the complexity of connections at a certain point demands a large housing means such as a large manhole. However, in cases such as secondary cable connections which are less complicated and generally fewer in number, a simpler and smaller housing means would be highly desirable if one were available and if it would not restrict the later access to the cable connections.
Conventional larger manholes provide adequate protection and accessibility for underground wiring, but they require considerable excavation and, whether constructed at the installation site or prefabricated, they involve considerable more manufacturing and installation costs. Less complex and smaller housings have been developed in the past for water meters. However, they do not provide sufficient space for manipulating or clearance for workmen who would be performing the initial installation or any additional installations or repairs on the underground cable wiring connections. Prior to this time no housing means is known to have been made available at lower costs as a substitute housing for manholes, to receive underground cable connections and to make them as easily accessible, while always protecting them in a readily found location.
There have been precast concrete sections assembled adjacent one another to create a continuous long trench for cable and other utility installations. Their assembly at the job site requires considerably greater effort and the installation costs are high. Moreover, the assembled sections depend on backfill for support. Therefore these precast sections do not provide the convenience and economy of a substantially assembled, portable handhole housing having an integral unitary principal body structure which with its cover in place will sustain severe loading such as occurs upon overrunning by vehicles.